Edinburgh Fringe 2018: The 5-star shows you must see before the Festival ends

Just like that, August is nearly over and so are the Edinburgh Festivals. As the Fringe draws to a close, we’ve put together the ultimate list of shows to see before the buzz and mayhem die down, all of which garnered a coveted 5-stars from The Scotsman’s critics.

CABARET & VARIETY

Yummy, Assembly Roxy (Venue 139)

“Yummy is a loud, avant-garde, joyous disco riot, which fizzes with energy … Unless you are planning to hot-foot it soon over to the other side of the world I advise you to catch this show while you can. Another example of how Australia, with its vibrant festival scene, is currently having a triumphant moment in the performing arts.” Read the full reviewhere. CLAIRE SMITH

THEATRE

Electrolyte, Pleasance Dome (Venue 23)

“Electrolyte is gig theatre, loud and driven. An immediate standing ovation met Olivia Sweeney’s towering, exhausting performance in a story told in rap rhymes and song … The score goes from blasts of sound to lyrical sweetness.” Read the full review here. TIM CORNWELL

“A play that insists on the joy of the unexpected, the strange fluidity of time, the power of storytelling and the ecstasy of radical culture, from proud disco to scandalous erotica. Far from sentimental nostalgia, Love Song to Lavender Menace is a reminder of how precious and precarious spaces of real difference truly are.” Read the full review here. BEN WALTERS

COMEDY

Grant Busé: The Birds And The Beats, Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)

“Educational, informative and entertaining, The Birds and the Beats is positively Reithian. Except the BBC’s first director general never did what Busé does with a microphone at the end of the show.” Read the full review here. MARTIN GRAY

“This is comedy that reminds us why we go out to see live shows. And it wears its incredible skill, its labour-intensity and its comic genius so lightly one might think it is just a bit of silliness. Everywhere we hear talk about “taking something away” from a Fringe comedy show. What I took away from this one was a sore face, a shortness of breath and the need for fresh underwear.” Read the full review here. KATE COPSTICK

“If you have been bored senseless listening to virtue-signalling streaks of woke… come and listen to a proper, professional comedy communicator and find out what you could have laughed at.” Read the full review here. KATE COPSTICK

Jessie Cave: Sunrise, The Stand Comedy Club 3&4 (Venue 12)

“This is an exquisite show from one of the more creative minds in comedy today. I do not know if I have the words to do it justice, but it brings to mind a line from a 1985 movie “she reached in and put a string of lights around my heart”, because that is pretty much what this show does.” Read the full review here. KATE COPSTICK

DANCE

My Land, Assembly Roxy (Venue 139)

“A circus show of profound beauty from Recirquel Company, stripped back, measured and almost ritualistic in its delivery. Each act maintains the electric atmosphere and adds to the drama in unexpected ways.” Read the full review here. KELLY APTER